The growth of Charlie Chaplin's fame. It includes early childhood, his love life, and of course his movies.

Essay by DesertedShadowJunior High, 8th gradeA+, December 2002

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Charlie Chaplin was born in England on April sixteenth, 1889. He was the youngest and always had a rivalry with his older brother, Sydney. Sidney was two years older than he was. His father, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Sr. was an actor. His mother, Hanna Chaplin, was a singer. His parents gave him a strong background to become an entertainer. Chaplin went to school until the age of eight when he quit school to clog dance. Sadly in 1901, his father died of alcohol abuse. His mother was hit hardest. Suddenly Chaplin's mother was going in and out of mental institutions. He was sent to a charity home with Sydney (Hale, 1). When Charles Chaplin got out, he went to Herns Boy College. He studied there for two years. This was the only proper education he had.

After a clog dancing performance, the leader of an acting troupe offered Chaplin a job.

He went to America for the first time performing in a comedy called the Wow-Wows (Jepstein, 14). In 1912, with the acting troupe, a theater director offered him a job that paid fifty dollars a week (Jepstein, 14). Since it was almost quadruple the amount he got from the Wow-Wows, he accepted. In three years, he managed to make thirty short films (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 439). In 1915, he joined Essanay Studios for two hundred fifty dollars a week (Jepstein, 14). There, he made "The Champion" and "His New Job." While in Essanay, he got the idea for a tramp character. Chaplin got this idea from a comic book he used to read in England ( ,1). When, his tramp picture came out, he called it "The Tramp." A year later, he joined Mutual, earning an astounding ten thousand dollar-a-week salary (Jepstein, 14). Here, he made "One...